A photographer who hangs out the side of helicopters to take pictures of London has captured its eerily empty streets during lockdown.
From today, the capital joins the rest of England in taking the biggest step towards recovery with pubs, restaurants and hairdressers reopening.
But before Londoners burst back into the streets for "Super Saturday", photographer Jason Hawkes took to the skies to snap the deserted city from above.
Mr Hawkes has been taking birds-eye-view and landscape photos of London from helicopters for more than 20 years, flying over the capital at least two or three times a month.
But the photographer told the Standard he had never seen the city look so different from the skies as it did during lockdown.
He said the experience of flying in a helicopter changed during the pandemic too, becoming more logistically complicated with requirements to keep the journeys Covid-secure.
Mr Hawkes said: "I shoot London all the time and what I really wanted to do was photograph the empty streets.
"I shot the week before the lockdown came in but then it got really difficult because there were a bunch of flying rules that came in.
"You had to social distance from the pilot which was impossible."
To begin with, Mr Hawkes said he was unable to fly but he was determined to get the shots.
Eventually, he was able to go up in a helicopter for a construction job in Nine Elms around Battersea and this paved the way for him to get flying regularly again.
Mr Hawkes said he found ways to social distance from the pilot and avoid going into the hangar.
In the air, they would wear face masks and keep the helicopter door open all the time to keep fresh air circulating, he said.
His photos captured the patchwork of streets without the hordes of people, cars, bicycles or buses.
Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace are seen without the usual crowds of tourists while West Ham's London Stadium stands without a football fan in sight.
And a shot of Hyde Park shows Londoners escaping their homes for an hour of exercise per day.
But Mr Hawkes said the picture which personally stood out to him was Oxford Circus.
He said: "The one which spoke to me is the one of Oxford Circus because it is always absolutely rammed, no matter the time of day or day of the week. We normally see have hundreds and hundreds of people there."
Mr Hawkes explained that when he is in a helicopter often he is not looking directly down, but across the city and you are normally can't see individual people in the streets below.
"But in Oxford circus, there is just thousands and thousands of people. It is usually absolutely packed."
"So that was the one place that really struck me.
"I have been in helicopters for 20 years and the fact that there wasn't a single person there was really weird. It was so strange. "
